Witches' Curses and Blessings
by Copper's Mama
Summary: Eric/Sookie fic. Eric comes to see Sookie one night, and all is not as it seems. Please read and review. *previously samcamstargate1*


_..._

_A Sookie/Eric fic. _

_..._

_Disclaimer: Nope, don't own True Blood. Wish I did, though ... I'd make them drop all those other guys - except maybe Alcide - and let Sookie have passionate, primal sex with Eric any time she wanted. _

_..._

_A/N: I've been toying with the idea of writing an Eric-turns-human fic for a while, and apparently decided that two o'clock in the morning was as good a time as any to start. _

_This will only be a one-shot, but I might consider expanding on the idea later. This takes place after season three, when Sookie rescinded the invites for both Bill and Eric, and is based on season 3 spoilers, as well as some from book 4. _

_I hope you guys like this, I know I'll love writing it. _

_As always, please read and review, I live for feedback! _

...

I was just settling in for a nice, long, luxurious bubble bath when I heard a knock at the door.

Groaning, I slipped back into my robe and secured it tightly, padding out of the room and towards the front door. At least I could still call it my front door. Eric had agreed to sell me back the house as long under the condition that I be "his", on paper at least. When I needed protection, he would be there for me. I'd told him - reluctantly - that I would agree to that, but that he wouldn't be getting any sexual perks out of claiming me as his. To emphasize my point, I'd rescinded his invitation as soon as the deed was back in my name.

Whoever was at the door knocked again, and I sighed in annoyance. "I'm coming!" I hollered out. When I finally reached the door, I glanced through the light-curtain-covered window, and saw Eric's unmistakable eyes staring back at me.

I was silent for a long moment.

"Please let me in," he asked, softer than I would have thought.

I was still mad at him for everything he'd done in trying to destroy Russell, as well as the situation he'd put me in by buying my house, and shook my head. I opened the door, but I promised myself I wouldn't invite him in. "No," I answered at his expectant look. "Whatever you have to say, you can tell me from across the threshold."

Eric held my gaze for a long time, and I could tell there was something different about him. He didn't look quite so pale, for one. _Must have just fed,_ I thought bitterly, looking away.

Rather than open his mouth to tell me what he was here for, Eric took a step towards the doorway.

"I won't invite you in," I reminded him, and then watched - completely flabbergasted - as his foot crossed into the entranceway.

His leg followed, and then his other foot, until all of his body was standing inside my house.

"How - you - I never - I rescinded your invitation!" I sputtered. "You can't be in here!"

Eric shook his head. "Sookie, I'm trying to tell you ... something's happened."

"You're damn right, mister! You've done something to me, or my house, to make it so you can enter, even when I don't want you to! I told you to stay out of my life, Eric Northman, and I meant it!" I wasn't exactly imposing in my flowery bathroom robe, but I held my ground.

Eric took a deep, steadying breath, regarding me in silence. "If you won't let me tell you, then let me show you." He moved quickly, but at the same time, not as quickly as I would've expected. He hadn't used vampire speed, he'd just done something I hadn't expected. He grabbed my hand.

The second change that I noticed, was that his fingers weren't cold. They'd always been cold ... all vampires had cold skin. It was a drawback of their hearts not pumping blood through their bodies: no circulation, no heat. How they managed to even get an erection was a medical mystery, one that I'd spent too much time thinking about.

I internally scorned myself for thinking about erections while Eric was essentially holding my hand, but kept my lips sealed tightly shut.

"You can feel it, can't you?" he asked me, his voice soft and raspy.

"Feel what?" I asked, playing dumb. Of course I could feel it, I just didn't know what _it_ was.

Eric slowly brought my hand up, pressing it against his chest.

I struggled immediately, trying to pull my hand away. To my credit, I managed to slip it away from him fairly easily - too easily. But then he'd grabbed it back, and placed my palm against his heart.

"Do you feel that?" he asked me again. His chest rose and fell for emphasis, and all the while he kept my hand there.

I was speechless. I thought I knew what I was feeling, but it just couldn't be true. Eric had been "undead" for over a thousand years. It just wasn't possible. I should have stepped back and demand that he explain himself, but I didn't. Instead, I stepped forward, allowing my hand to remain on his shirt-covered chest. I neared closer and closer to him, until my lips almost came into contact with the back of my quivering hand. When I turned my head, Eric allowed my hand to slip out of his grip.

Seconds later - though it felt like much longer - my head came into contact with Eric's chest. Specifically, my right ear pressed down on Eric's chest, just slightly to the left where his heart rested. _Bomp-bomp. Bomp-bomp. Bomp-bomp-bomp. Bomp-bomp-bomp. _It was a heartbeat. Unmistakable. Unbelievable. Unexplainable ... at least by me.

"What happened?" I asked, not able to pull myself away from him. My odd fascination with his heartbeat only increased when he began to speak, and I could hear the voice rumble from within him. It was a soothing vibration that I never wanted to give up. _Why have I never listened to a man's chest while he was speaking? Or is it just Eric that sounds so good?_

"Witches," he explained shortly. "I didn't give them what they wanted, so they tried to make me vulnerable."

I widened my eyes at that, finally succeeding in pulling away from him. "Won't they come after you?"

Eric shrugged. "Pam and Chow have it under control. If I need to, I can call in Alcide's men and owe him a favor." Eric sighed, brushing a hand through his hair. "This isn't what I came here to discuss with you."

_Why'd you have to pull away, Sookie? Can't you just give me this moment?_

They weren't my thoughts. I realized with a gasp that I could hear his.

Eric stared down at me, and after a few seconds seemed to understand. "Sorry," he muttered sheepishly. "I hadn't considered that."

I shook my head. "You're human now ... I can hear human thoughts."

Eric nodded, and after a moment of silence, turned to close the door.

"So ... what did you come here to discuss with me?" I wondered, resisting the urge to step away from him. Somehow, inexplicably, he seemed extremely more dangerous as a human. In my house. In the middle of the night. With no one else around. I couldn't help the gulp that I swallowed down my throat.

Eric took a small, almost hesitant step closer, meeting my eyes. "You wanted a life free of vampires."

I blinked, not understanding what he was trying to get at.

"I can now offer you that," he stated simply, opening his arms and holding them out, in a sort of 'here I am' gesture.

I stood in mute shock, flabbergasted, affronted, amazed, and just a little bit touched. Eric was certainly being presumptuous, but it was more touching than I could say to know what I was on the forefront of his mind when something like this happened.

"Eric, you're ... that's just crazy," I told him, taking a step back for emphasis.

He followed me, slowly. "Is it? Isn't this what you've wanted?"

I shook my head back and forth, a flutter of hair falling around my face. "No, I - it - Eric, stop! Give me a second to think, here!"

_There's nothing to think about, Sookie. I want you, you want a life free of vampires, and I can finally give that to you. I can take you away from the night._

I gulped at the sound of his thoughts in my mind, raising my eyes to look at his face. "This is insane, Eric. You're just acting on impulse. After you ... 'have' me, you'll go running back to Fangtasia and have the witches change you back." I hated myself for saying it, but it was a big possibility.

Eric shook his head, advancing on me some more. He walked me backwards until my legs met with the living room couch. When I flopped down on it, he leaned over me. His skin was flushed, just as I was sure mine was. His breathing was strained and obvious, possibly from the strain of holding himself back from doing everything he'd ever wanted to do to me.

If I reached my hand out right then, I knew I'd feel his heart fluttering under his ribcage.

It was too much to take in.

"Trust me," Eric whispered, his hot breath seeping over my skin.

I closed my eyes, and a second later I felt his warm hand press against my cheek, his thumb brushing lightly over my cheekbone. I felt him draw nearer to me, and couldn't bring myself to turn away. When his lips settled over mine, it was all I could do not to gasp in shock.

Warm lips. Warm hands. Warm breath. Beating heart, heaving chest, trembling ... my goodness, he was actually trembling.

"Sookie," he breathed out when he finally pulled away.

I opened my eyes, trying to blink away the fog that had settled the moment his lips had touched mine.

Eric shook his head, a soft grin poking out of the corner of his mouth. "I haven't been breathless in over a thousand years," he commented with a chuckle.

My eyes soaked in the expression on his face; dreamy, awed, content. It was an expression I'd never seen Eric wear. It was an expression I wanted to see him wear for a long, long time.

Without thought for the consequences, I reached out with my hands and cupped his face, pulling him back to my lips. I gasped again at the sensation of his warm lips on mine, parting my mouth for him immediately.

He took the opportunity, tying our tongues together and moaning into my mouth. He dropped to his knees on the couch, bending over my body. He had to hunch his back to be able to still reach my lips, he was so tall.

My body melted against his, sated in the knowledge that this was what I'd been waiting for.

I didn't protest when his fingers began pulling at my clothing. I even helped his out of the way, eager to see all of him. I wanted to burn the image of his no-longer-pale body into my memory so I could call upon it whenever I wanted. If I was right, and this was the only time we'd have together like this, then I wanted to remember it forever.

After what felt like hours, we were lying on the floor of my living room, completely spent. Eric was lying flat on his back with one hand flared out to the side, while he held me against his body with the other. I was strung over his sweat-covered body, my head pressed against his chest, my leg hooked between him.

"If there's a drawback to being human, it's that I can't recover quickly and take you again this instant," Eric spoke, the pout evident in his voice.

"Between the bloodsucking, conniving Eric who can go all night, and the out-of-breath, sweaty Eric lying on the floor with me now, I'll take the latter," I mumbled back.

Eric chuckled, lifting his head with great effort to kiss my forehead. "You are an odd creature, Sookie Stackhouse."

I smiled at that, finding it a compliment for the first time in my life. "Likewise, Eric Northman."

We laid there in silence for a long time, until finally one of us had to break the spell we'd fallen under. It ended up being me.

"So ... what now?"

Eric sighed, forcing himself into a sitting position.

I moved with him, pulling a cushion off the couch and cuddling it to my chest. I wasn't quite as comfortably in my naked flesh as he was.

"I've been a vampire for a very long time, Sookie," he told me. "I've almost forgotten what it means to be human."

I nodded, looking down. I'd known this was coming, I'd _told him_ even. As soon as he'd gotten what he wanted from me, he'd go running back to the witches and have them turn him back.

His next words shocked me down to my core. "Perhaps you could teach me."

I looked up at him sharply, searching for any doubt or deceit in his eyes. All I saw was pure, raw hope. "Do you mean that?"

Eric spread his legs and pulled me forward, adjusting me so that I was sitting on his lap, my legs hooked around him. "I saw what two thousand years did to Godric. In his life, he had few people that he could truly depend on, that he truly loved or trusted. I was one of those few, but still he left me. If living another thousand years means ending up like that ... I don't want to."

I brought a hand to his cheek, wondering where this confession was coming from. He'd shut out his emotions for so long ... maybe he couldn't do it anymore, now that he was human.

"I want to spend whatever life I have left doing this with you," he told me, leaning forward and stealing the breath from my lips.

I pulled away after a moment, dazed and hopeful. "Do you really mean this? This isn't just some damn dream?"

Eric shook his head with a grin. "It's not a dream, I assure you." He echoed the words he'd spoken when he saw me naked weeks before, and I smacked him for bringing that up again. Not a hard smack, mind you ... he was a tad more vulnerable now.

"What will we do?" I asked him, needing some sort of plan. It was all well and good to say we'll fuck like bunnies for the rest of our lives, but that could just be a pipe dream.

"Anything we want," Eric told me. "I have enough money to last us four lifetimes."

I stroked his chin again, looking deep into his eyes. "Where will we go?" Surely he couldn't stay in the area. If any of his enemies found out he was human, it would be all too easy for them to kill him.

"Anywhere we want," Eric replied, as though it were the most simple thing in the world.

"What if it doesn't work out?" I asked him, and hated myself a little more for doing so. I couldn't just give him my heart after one night of incredible sex.

He looked a little saddened at that, but leaned forward to brush his lips over my cheek. "I will love you enough for the both of us," he promised me, causing my heart to clench. "But if I'm not enough for you ... you are welcome to leave me."

My eyes drifted closed, and I let my forehead fall against his. If I hadn't been sitting on his thighs, and he hadn't been slouched, this wouldn't have been possible. I thought about everything he said, knowing that it was exactly what I wanted to hear. I couldn't believe that the words were actually coming out of his mouth. It felt too much like a fantasy to be real.

With a sigh, I pulled away. I pushed myself up from his lap, standing on shaky legs. At his look of worry, I held my hand out to him.

He accepted the gesture, standing up and holding my hand in his.

"Come to bed with me," I requested, walking to the stairs. "If you're still there in the morning ... we'll find a way to make it work."

Eric grinned at that, seizing me up in his arms.

We stood there in a heated embrace, naked in my living room, wrapped around each other. The only sound that could be heard from inside the house was the smacking of our lips and tongues together, and our panted breathing as we stole oxygen wherever we could.

By the time we made it back up to my room, Eric was ready for round two. It was slower than the last time, but that made it all the more beautiful.

We fell asleep together on the bed, Eric's arm draped over my middle. It seemed ridiculous that the thousand-year-old Viking-Vampire would be a snuggler, but then I reminded myself that he wasn't that guy anymore. He was still a thousand-years old, and he was still a Viking, but he was no longer a vampire. He no longer had fangs, or needed to drink blood. He didn't have to slip into a hidey-hole before the sun rose, and his skin was no longer cold to the touch.

I tried to stay awake for as long as I could that night, convinced that when I woke up the next morning, it would have all been a dream. But I was beyond sated from our coupling, and his warm body was soothing against mine. Eventually I succumbed to slumber.

The first thing that I noticed when I woke the next morning was how bright it was in my room. The curtains and window were open, allowing light to stream freely into the room. I could hear birds chirping back and forth at one another outside, and almost smiled. The expression quickly dropped from my face when I realized that I was alone in the bed.

I shot up, looking all around me. Eric was gone. I was alone in the bed, naked. A hand clapped over my mouth, trying to stifle the sob that threatened to escape. Tears trickled freely down my eyes, spilling on the sheet that clung to my waist.

My cries were interrupted by a clattering from downstairs. Someone was in my kitchen. Thinking that Jason had come over without announcing himself, I threw on a robe, tied it tightly around my waist, and descended the stairs. I wiped the remnants of my sadness away as much as I could, breathing deeply to prepare myself for my invading brother.

There was a blond, shirtless man standing in front of my stove, but it was definitely not my brother.

"Eric," I almost whispered out, an obscene amount of happiness flooding my heart.

Eric turned around at the sound of my voice, chewing on what looked like a bagel.

"Phook -" he began, and then paused. He chewed several times, and then swallowed dramatically. Once his mouth was free of obstacles, he tried again. "Sookie, good morning. Are you hungry?"

I looked around the kitchen, seeing what looked to be several days worth of breakfast food. Bacon, eggs, pancakes, muffins, bagels, cereal, toast, coffee, juice. It almost looked like a buffet. "What is all this?"

Eric looked sheepish, brushing a hand through his disheveled hair. "I kind of went overboard. It's been a thousand years since I've eaten real food ... once I got started, I couldn't stop."

I chuckled at that, and then brought my eyes back to Eric. "You're still here," I observed, feeling stupid for pointing out such an obvious fact.

Eric grinned back, walking towards me. "Still here," he confirmed. He bent down to kiss me, and I could taste the remains of a well-buttered bagel in his mouth.

"Mmm, that tastes good," I replied, licking my lips when he pulled away.

"What? Me, or the bagel?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

I rolled my eyes at him, answering him by flitting across the room and snatching up a bagel of my own. The smell of bacon was a glorious one, and I admit that I pigged out a little. Afterwards we went up to my room for a post-breakfast snuggle.

"I have to work today," I told him, disappointment clear in my voice.

"Quit your job," he suggested sincerely.

I sighed. "Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't do that to Sam. Not after everything." Sam was still mad about my year-long disappearance.

Eric pressed his lips against my neck, snuggled comfortably behind me. "Then take a vacation. I'll be happy to compensate him for your absence."

I turned in his arms, keeping my eyes serious and level. "Now listen here, mister. I won't be a kept woman. I know you've got oodles and oodles of money stashed up, and I wouldn't ever want for anything, but I am more than capable of making my own way. I won't sit around the house all day like some spoiled housewife."

Eric only grinned back at me. "I like the sound of that."

"What?" I asked.

"Wife," he answered, kissing me before I could reply.

I let him, begrudgingly thinking that I liked the sound of it, too.

In the end, we agreed that I would talk to Sam about taking a short vacation. I would tell him the truth about my trip to Faerie to ease his mind, but I wouldn't tell him about Eric. Not yet.

This was a secret that I wanted to keep all to myself, for as long as I could. Eric was mine.

...

_The end. _

_Well, what did you guys think of that one? Like it, hate it? _

_Reviews are appreciated, flame if you must, but constructive criticism is much more useful. _

_Until next time ...! _


End file.
